Finn's Journal #55 – Jul 09 – 2018

 

Having just untangled myself from the clutches of one of the singing dire bats, I plummeted to the ground and scrambled for cover.  Again, the bats have shown their desire to attack and capture the smaller opponents, and Finn was paying the price for their exuberance.  Knowing that only Tetsuo and perhaps myself had enough speed through this difficult terrain to maybe keep up with our flying foes, we both dashed after our friend, following the sounds of his yelling.

 

We zipped past the group trying desperately to estimate his range and distance based on the sounds, and at our top speed I was managing to keep up, but still not able to do anything to bridge the seeming infinite distance to my friend in the air above the canopy of the trees.  Tetsuo, with his incredible shadow jumping ability, had a chance to make such an attempt.  I would be on hand to support his attempt with all that I had.  I could only hope that the rest of our allies who could not match the pace would stick together and follow as best as they could.

 

We surged ahead and with only vain hope, I switched to my crossbow while I tried to keep an eye on Tetsuo as he popped ahead of me from shadow to shadow.  His first attempt was glorious as he shot up a tree and teleported vertically with as much height as he could muster and launched himself at what was now an ominously silent Finn.  He tried to wrestle Finn from the grip of the dire bats, but end result was unsuccessful.  A bat was killed and Tetsuo and the Lost Child plummeted to the ground, but the second bat swooped in and grabbed Finn from midair and continued on!  Finn was down for the count, but it was what I was waiting for, as I ran up and revived him as much as I could.  I hacked at the barely alive Lost Child as Tetsuo was up and running again.  Of course, the lost child regenerated awake again, but by then we were both off and away hoping for a second chance at freeing our lost ally.

 

On we ran until we went so far that we could see part of the cliff wall ahead that we had jumped down earlier.  Tetsuo seized this as his next chance!  He shot up the cliff as fast as I have ever seen him climb, and at the top he made a heroic shadow step to the bat carrying Finn.  He made his best attempt to grab ahold, and slipped…  And then he fell.  The trees didn’t break his fall, and he hit the ground with a tremendous THUD.  Luckily, I was on hand, and with the smallest amount of healing left to me, I managed to get him back, albeit shakily, to his feet.

 

The chase has now become a hunt.  Our horrible foes had our friend.

 

When the rest of the group caught up, the grim results of our chase started to seek in.  Uphir was almost inconsolable, but in the end, we decided we had to stop and seek the council of our allies in the Order of the Feather.  Muriel changed into human form so that we could discuss our options.  She was a bit concerned that Gregor had joined us due to his still having some difficulties adapting back to his new form.  I have sent word back to Snelb looking to see if he would be willing to rejoin us to assist us with Gregor and also perhaps with the Blue Eyed doll.  We also determined the most likely direction that the Lost Children would take Finn, and started off in that direction with less care than I would like, but I had to concede that haste was probably optimal.  We journeyed south along the river towards the lake, which is the likely domain of the Night Mother. 

 

Along the way were attacked again by more bats and lost children, and they very clearly focused all their efforts on acquiring me. I immediately dashed to Uphir and lashed myself to her, but the assault was tremendous.  It was no time at all before I was unconscious and poisoned with the dreadful Blackvein once more...